The return of Mark Driscoll: A new church in Arizona and gigs on the road

Published 3:45 pm, Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Photo: SCOTT COHEN, Getty Images

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Mark Driscoll: The ex-senior pastor at Seattle's Mars Hill megachurch, which imploded in 2014, formally launches his new congregation in Scottsdale, Arizona. Driscoll is still facing a RICO racketeering suit by former church members in Seattle. But he is preaching at evangelical conferences around the country, and has risen from the ashes in the Phoenix area.. (AP Photo/Scott Cohen) less

Mark Driscoll: The ex-senior pastor at Seattle's Mars Hill megachurch, which imploded in 2014, formally launches his new congregation in Scottsdale, Arizona. Driscoll is still facing a RICO racketeering ... more

Photo: SCOTT COHEN, Getty Images

The return of Mark Driscoll: A new church in Arizona and gigs on the road

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Phoenix in August is known for its hellish heat, and periodic deluges that fill dry stream beds with deluges of quasi- Biblical proportions.

The former pastor of Seattle's former Mars Hill megachurch, Mark Driscoll, has chosen August to launch The Trinity Church in the 50-year-old, 1,400-seat former Glass & Garden Drive-in Church in nearby Scottsdale.

The newly formed church held an open house on Easter Sunday in late March. Its formal launch will come just 22 months after Driscoll quit as senior pastor at Mars Hill Church, following closely by the sudden dissolving of the church.

Driscoll is clearly back in the business of preaching on the evangelical circuit. He's speaking next month at the James River Church in Ozark, Arkansas, followed in September by appearances before Christian musicians at Momentum 2016 in Florida and The 400 Gathering Conference in Alabama.

The centerpiece, however, is Driscoll's new church. In a message accompanying a new video, he says:

"We are in our core launch team phase gearing up for our public opening this fall around the time school begins. Right now, we have a family style Bible study with the kids present every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

"In the next month or so, we hope to have our kids ministry building ready to start children's ministry in the 'backyard.' After that, our plan is to have the main room that we call the 'living room' ready for church services including the worship and and singing as we gear up for two morning church services."

Driscoll moved to Phoenix after the implosion of Mars Hill Church and has used it as a base to rise from the ashes.

He was brought down, in Seattle, after a complaint by 21 Mars Hill pastors and worship leaders that Driscoll had bullied, intimidated and manipulated those who worked at the church. The charges were sustained, in a report never released by church elders.

Driscoll brought misogyny and homophobia to the pulpit. He famously called women "penis homes", decried "effeminate, anatomically male worship leaders," and described America as a "pussified nation" in which men are "raised by bitter penis envying burned feministed single mothers."

And Driscoll once characterized Jesus as "a prizefighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed."

Mars Hill was bled, made to purchase 11,000 copies of a Driscoll book on marriage, valued at around $210,000, as part of a consultant's effort to put it on the New York Times bestseller list. The consultant was paid $25,000. Driscoll was also accused of lifting passages from other people's books.

The Trinity Church website explains that Driscoll took a year off from pastoral ministry to "learn, repent, grow and heal, and meet many of the people involved."

Many of those allegedly mistreated at Mars Hill have claimed that Driscoll did not connect, and did not repent.

In March, four former Mars Hill deacons and members filed a civil RICO racketeering suit, accusing Driscoll and a deputy of engaging in a "pattern of racketeering" which injected a "deadly toxin" that ended with "complete destruction of the church."

The Trinity website acknowledges that Driscoll and his family went through "the most challenging year of their lives" but said the year off has put him ready for a return to the pulpit.

"During this time, Pastor Mark and (wife) Grace walked with professional and pastoral counsel who have all agreed that they and their children are ready to return to local church ministry, with a new season and a new church in the new city of Phoenix," it explains.

Not always local. For instance, Driscoll is already booked to speak next spring at the annual Stronger Men's Conference, its goal to "empower and motivate men to live out God's view of manhood."

Driscoll will be interpreting God's view.

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politcs for the P-I since 1973.